{"id":106860,"date":"2018-02-26T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=106860"},"modified":"2018-02-25T05:47:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T05:47:23","slug":"haitis-latest-indignity-at-the-hands-of-dogooders-oxfams-sex-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/02\/haitis-latest-indignity-at-the-hands-of-dogooders-oxfams-sex-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Haiti\u2019s Latest Indignity at the Hands of Dogooders, Oxfam\u2019s Sex Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by DaveBleasdale | CC BY 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n

22 Feb 2018 – <\/em>I was in Cuba when the\u00a0Oxfam \u201cCaligula\u201d sex scandal<\/a>\u00a0in Haiti broke.<\/p>\n

Knowing my work in the field, a colleague with years of experience working in disaster response agencies asked me what I thought.<\/p>\n

When I had the chance to catch up on the story, my response included, \u201cI wasn\u2019t surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was horrified. \u201cUnderage girls wearing nothing but Oxfam T-shirts! How can that be not surprising?\u201d<\/p>\n

Haiti, unfortunately, has seen its share of\u00a0blan<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 foreigners \u2013 who have been otherwise rejected by their home societies, or should have.<\/p>\n

Not one, not two, but at least three cases of confirmed pedophiles, former priests, sent to Haiti to hush angry parishioners in the U.S. They only were brought to light in Haiti if they ruffled the feathers of the powerful, aligned with the wrong political faction, such as president Aristide, ousted in 2004.<\/p>\n

I lost count at four orphanages from the U.S. rocked by scandal when one of their \u2013 male \u2013 leaders was accused of sexual misconduct with the children they were supposed to be \u201csaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

An individual stole a colleague\u2019s car, and cases of people dealing drugs.<\/p>\n

Not to mention the United Nations troops, legally granted immunity,\u00a0covering up<\/a>\u00a0and otherwise protecting scores of, again, male, perpetrators of rape, sexual assault, and other\u00a0\u201csexual misconduct<\/a>.\u201d Some even\u00a0left behind children<\/a>\u00a0for the women, many of whom under the age of consent, to raise on their own. And many victims were young Haitian men and boys.<\/p>\n

But not Oxfam! They are the good guys. They are the watchdogs, keeping others like USAID, the UK\u2019s DIFD, the World Bank, and other bullies honest and on their toes. Oxfam\u2019s simulation of world hunger at my university dining hall had a big impact on me, a reason I became vegetarian. And let\u2019s not forget their annual report exposing the\u00a0increasing inequality in global capitalism.<\/a><\/p>\n

Et\u00a0tu, brute?<\/p>\n

So\u00a0the lurid details may be a new high water mark for the\u00a0dogooders. But the cover-up was, again, not surprising. The alleged brothel paid for by Oxfam donors, and the quiet exit strategy for the country director,\u00a0allowing him another post within the agency<\/a>\u00a0following a deliberately\u00a0weakened internal report<\/a>, occurred in 2011, a year and a half following the earthquake that killed too many to count \u2013 indeed, the death toll was politicized by a rogue critic of NGOs and the aid system.<\/p>\n

International donors had pledged $10 billion for the Haiti response at a\u00a0March 31, 2010 UN conference<\/a>. According to the\u00a0UN Special Envoy\u2019s office<\/a>, this amount was later upped to $13 billion, while individual donors worldwide contributed just over $3 billion.<\/p>\n

The 16-billion-dollar question was, often asked, \u201cWhere did the money go?\u201d<\/p>\n

NGOs, used to being granted a pass for their \u2018dogooding,\u2019 did not take kindly to the question being raised. Individuals, myself included, were often\u00a0vitriolically\u00a0and sometimes personally attacked for daring to question the impacts of the aid on the ground.<\/p>\n

The Red Cross\u00a0interrupted a Congressional briefing<\/a>\u00a0in early 2012 which included a screening of Michele Mitchell\u2019s\u00a0Haiti: Where Did the Money Go<\/a>?<\/em><\/p>\n

A representative of Sean Penn\u2019s organization, JPHRO, engaged in a Twitter war with Jonathan Katz during a\u00a0Duke University conference on humanitarianism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I had to send nine drafts, and successfully argue for a reconsideration, for a peer-reviewed journal article based on quantitative data, with statistics checked through SPSS. At issue was not the data themselves, but the interpretation and policy significance. Also, refusing participation in my research, an NGO who is a signatory of the\u00a0Project Sphere Humanitarian Charter<\/a>\u00a0(which among others declares transparency and openness to researchers) quibbled not with the methodology of the research but the value of its core questions.<\/p>\n

Why would this be the response?<\/p>\n

While there are many reasons, first and foremost is to protect their image, their \u201cbrand,\u201d which impacts their ability to raise funds.<\/p>\n

Haiti\u2019s earthquake and the $16 billion response encouraged NGOs to bring in their \u201csuperstars,\u201d in the words of someone who worked at Oxfam at the time of the 2012 interview. \u201cIf you look at the big international NGOs, including this one, all of them changed\u00a0their\u00a0in-country director within months of the earthquake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only are the \u201csuperstars\u201d ignorant of the country and its laws, and without a Rolodex of local contacts who are capable, trustworthy, and can get the job done, they come with a ton of bravado, what\u00a0Teju\u00a0Cole called the \u201cwhite savior industrial complex<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, importantly, especially with the superstars, with no local connection, there was no oversight. Haitian institutions were deliberately excluded from\u00a0decisionmaking, as humanitarian \u201ccluster\u201d meetings were held in a\u00a0patrolled UN base, in English<\/a>. UN troops denied entry to Haitian government officials. Suspecting a racial bias, I twice attempted to enter without presenting my U.S. passport. Both times I was granted access.<\/p>\n

Local staff people with sometimes decades of experience were forced to work for someone half their age, who do not speak the local languages, for a fraction of the expat salaries. Sometimes this \u201cexpatronizing\u201d led organizations to make serious mistakes, endangering the lives of Haitian aid workers who had to walk into \u201cRed Zones\u201d while expats with access to the NGO vehicles are protected, unable to go in.<\/p>\n

Ultimately\u00a0I wasn\u2019t surprised because there were literally tens of thousands of foreign people involved in Haiti following the quake, some for the particular notch on the humanitarian bedpost, as it was known that Haiti was a \u201cmust-have\u201d experience for a humanitarian career.<\/p>\n

As human beings, we are all flawed. Most of us live with some level of contradictions in our lives, managing ambivalence or other multiple motivations.<\/p>\n

As shocking as the behaviors are, the story should not be about good or bad\u00a0people<\/em>\u00a0but about good or bad behaviors, actions, and consequences.<\/p>\n

One of the\u00a0humanitarian aftershocks<\/a>\u00a0was indeed an\u00a0increase in violence against women<\/a>, as NGO food aid, run through NGO-created, male-dominated committees, was often used to demand\u00a0transactional sex.<\/a><\/p>\n

To address the\u00a0behaviors\u00a0we need to change the reward structures.<\/p>\n

Structurally speaking, NGOs are not accountable to the people they serve or the host governments. They are only accountable (and this story shows the limits of this) to their donors and countries of origin.<\/p>\n

What do Haitian people say? Like every people on Earth, Haitian people are diverse and complex. There are multiple points of view.<\/p>\n

And.<\/p>\n

There is widespread condemnation of the events.\u00a0\u00a0The Haitian government\u00a0opened an investigation<\/a>, and possible complaint.<\/p>\n

As activist Nixon\u00a0Boumba, who also works for an NGO, argues, \u201cThis rare action would be important legal precedent. At the same time, the Haitian government did nothing for the victims of cholera [brought to Haiti via UN peacekeepers<\/a>], not to mention the rapes committed by UN soldiers during the last occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colette\u00a0Lespinasse, with decades of experience working in the NGO sector, warned that it is\u00a0important not to scapegoat Oxfam<\/a>. \u201cWhat happened to Oxfam can occur in any organization, because there\u2019s no effective control over who is recruited to go to the country, and not enough follow-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, since the revelations regarding Oxfam, accusations of wrongdoing are surfacing in\u00a0World Vision<\/a>,\u00a0Save the Children<\/a>, and\u00a0Christian Aid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among others,\u00a0Ilionor\u00a0Louis, chair of the Development Sciences Department at the State University of Haiti, questions why Oxfam and why now: \u201cTo my knowledge, it is the only major organization systematically reporting on inequality within the global capitalist system. Given the world\u2019s rightward shift, this isn\u2019t a random target.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to pending legal action,\u00a0Lespinasse\u00a0argued: \u201cThere should be sanctions, but what\u2019s important, Haiti needs to create an environment where any organization, be it public or private, Haitian or foreign, needs to create an internal environment and rules where these things are not tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camille Chalmers added, \u201cThis kind of event isn\u2019t isolated: there are several hundred like it. We need to denounce the model of so-called \u2018development\u2019 aid that reinforces power relations, inequality, and reinforces apartheid that already exists in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

One aid professional, who asked not to be named, pointed out two fundamental inequalities that are at the root of this crisis and not adequately discussed: patriarchy, and neocolonialism. Louis added that this is a particular case of\u00a0infantalization\u00a0of the aid regime, treating Haitian beneficiaries as children and even less than human, whose lives don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

So\u2026 what now? What should the response be? Yes,\u00a0apologies<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0righteous indignation<\/a>. But let\u2019s not let NGOs try and distance themselves.<\/p>\n

Chalmers argued that this offers an opportunity to \u201crekindle the struggle against UN impunity for all the crimes they committed during their 14-year occupation and continue to struggle to demand justice and reparations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boumba\u00a0argued for a \u201creal audit about international cooperation in Haiti. But who will do the audit? Who has the interest in doing it? How will it be done? I hope that this won\u2019t be used by extreme right wing groups as a pretext to impose a new series of anti-social policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

This problem was created by the perceived need for outsiders to take over because supposedly Haitians were unable to do the job. This\u00a0disaster narrative<\/a>\u00a0was the most powerful: White saviors and, in the words of\u00a0Mary Beard<\/a>, \u201cuncivilized\u201d Haitians.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s call this imperialism.<\/p>\n

And yes, let\u2019s also call it racism.<\/p>\n

If Haiti has a \u201cweak state\u201d which forced it to become the \u201cRepublic of NGOs<\/a>,\u201d let\u2019s take a look at international organizations\u2019 consistent role of undermining of the State, deliberately bypassing the state to the benefit of NGOs, with budgets many times greater than the ministries and a systematic \u201cbrain drain\u201d of the public sector through greater salaries and prospects of foreign visas.<\/p>\n

Solutions need to address all these issues at once. It is not only for Haitian people or the government to demand change. It is up to NGOs to call for greater oversight. Not a voluntary, optional, peer-review process. And most definitely up to those of us who live in \u201cdonor\u201d countries to\u00a0change the rules of the game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that this may well\u00a0be the beginning<\/a>\u00a0of a\u00a0#MeToo<\/a>\u00a0movement in Haiti, and hopefully elsewhere in the world where\u00a0reward structures of the aid industry<\/a>\u00a0reinforce inequality, imperialism, and patriarchy. This most certainly is\u00a0not isolated to Haiti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Again, Haiti might point the way for others. Hopefully this time Haitian people will not have to pay the price.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

Mark Schuller<\/em> is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nonprofit and NGO Studies at Northern Illinois University and affiliate at the Facult\u00e9 d\u2019Ethnologie, l\u2019Universit\u00e9 d\u2019\u00c9tat d\u2019Ha\u00efti. He is the author or co-editor of seven books, including <\/em>Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti<\/a>. Schuller is co-director \/ co-producer of documentary <\/em>Poto Mitan: Haitian Women, Pillars of the Global Economy<\/a> (2009), and active in several solidarity efforts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 counterpunch.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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